


A Brief Historical Excerpt on Transformative Potioneering

by the_secret_wordsmith



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 20th Century, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gay Character, M/M, Polyjuice Potion, Potions, Prompt Fic, References to Oscar Wilde, Science Experiments, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Transgender, Transitioning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:20:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26446246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_secret_wordsmith/pseuds/the_secret_wordsmith
Summary: The brilliant prompt was: “Every potions master knows polyjuice potion. But only few people know its origin: Once a witch*wizzard invented it while searching after a potion for transition.”So then – meet Cam of Cornwall, a trans man intent on magical transition, and his trying-his-best cis-gendered husband, Rodrick O'Hair.
Relationships: Original Male Character/ Original Male Character
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9
Collections: LGBTQ+ Writing Prompts (Any Fandom)





	A Brief Historical Excerpt on Transformative Potioneering

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [Pride_Writing_Prompts](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Pride_Writing_Prompts) collection. 



“ _Truth in art is the unity of a thing with itself: the outward rendered expressive of the inward: the soul made incarnate: the body instinct with spirit.”_

\- Oscar Wilde, _De Profundis_

***

**Cam of Cornwall.**

To all the world he appeared as a softly-spoken black woman; a witch in the wizarding world and a good housewife in the muggle. But in early 20th century Britain, Cam O'Hair knew the truth: he was a wizard not a witch, and a man not a woman.

His husband, the O'Hair family heir and patriarch, knew this too. But Rodrick O'Hair was the only one to know and understand Cam's full truth, loving him fully and completely for his beautiful soul, regardless of his physical body.

But still, Rodrick was the only person to know this truth outside of Cam himself.

So Cam stayed inside his new family's ancient manor, set upon cliffs on the western reaches of the island kingdom he had come to call home, and practised his magic privately and simply. Rodrick worked at the ministry, but when he returned home the two would spend hours together, talking and laughing, ever each others' light and love and hope.

Rodrick would often be away, however, so Cam had to find other things to occupy his time in the large manor house by the sea.

And so it was that Cam of Cornwall, as he was later to be known by more well-read potioneers, began his experiments.

To put it simply: he wanted his body to reflect the reality of his soul.

He knew of people like him, who identified with genders outside their physicality; but who did not have this need: who were content with the body they had, the body parts they had; and through simply living and acting as they felt they ought, found themselves content and whole.

But Cam was not like them.

Cam knew what he needed: in a world and a society so heavily defined by binary gender, Cam needed to change his body. He needed, as his favourite muggle writer once wrote, “the outward rendered expressive of the inward”. Though perhaps when Oscar Wilde wrote that, he did not fathom what torment Cam might find himself in: a man ensnared in the body of a woman, as he was.

But still, it brought him comfort to reread the line and hope that, with the aid of magic, he could make such a sentiment true in its realest sense for himself, and others like him.

He settled to work in the large chambers he and Rodrick had set aside for his experiments, and one day he created something incredible. Research and experiment, over and over, drew him to the conclusion that what he had created would work.

This was it: the potion to change everything.

It just needed one final ingredient, something organic but not plant matter; mammal but not animal. It needed something human.

Cam separated his potion, drawing forth two separate flasks from the great vat of it that he'd created, and when his husband returned home, he explained it all to him.

Rodrick was over the moon. Finally, he thought: his husband, the love of his life, could feel complete and himself in a world as strange and rigid as the one they lived in. He quickly offered up himself for the experiment.

Cam decided that they would try with some of himself too; so he took a hair from each of their heads: one black and curly, the other fine and blond; and added them, one each to the two flasks.

The potions bubbled and boiled, and Cam watched them intelligently, ever the pioneer scientist that he was; and when they settled, they looked very different from each other.

“Will you, my love?” He asked Rodrick.

His husband nodded, for there was nothing he wouldn't do for the man he loved, and so they each took a flask and drank deep.

Cam almost regretted it, such was the pain of transformation. But they both survived, gasping for air, and feeling slightly exhilarated.

But when Cam looked up, it was to see himself staring back at him, exactly the same, down to his feminine cheekbones and long black eyelashes. He blinked and himself blinked back.

“Well,” Rodrick said, from within the form of Cam himself, “This is strange.”

Cam blinked then looked down at his own body. He was not trapped in his old form anymore. He scrambled to his feet and stared into the floor-length mirror the experiment chamber had. He was Rodrick! He was, physically, a man.

Rodrick was laughing, deeply amused by this strange magic, but Cam fell apart, sobbing uncontrollably. He was physically a man. He fit in to what society said he ought to be, what he, as a man, ought to look like and physically be. It was too much to bear.

Rodrick held him and the embrace was slightly awkward as Cam was used to being able to easily rest his head against his taller husband's shoulder, but now of course, their roles were reversed.

“When will it wear off?” Rodrick asked and Cam felt sad. He didn't want it to ever wear off. Perhaps his husband spotted as much in his expression though, because then his voice went a lot softer, “You can not live as me forever, my love. I could not bear it, when your face is the most precious thing in the world to me.”

“But I want to be a man.”

“You are a man.”

“But my body is not!” Cam shouted, voice lower and more powerful now, everything he'd ever dreamed of.

“Who cares what your body is, or isn't?” Rodrick bellowed back, “It is your soul that I love.”

“And it is not your love that I struggle with,” Cam retorted, “I do not do this for you, my love. I do this for me, don't forget that.”

And he turned away. But still, he knew it was true: he could not live as his husband's form for the rest of his life. It would simply not do.

“Your potion is incredible, Cam,” Rodrick said quietly, “You have revolutionised magic, turned potion-making on its head. They will laud you as one of the greatest magical minds to ever exist.”

Cam shook his head: “But I just want to be myself.”

Rodrick took his hands, “Then keep going, my love,” he said, voice soft, “I have always supported you – _always_. And I know how I can be sometimes – self-indulgent and over-worried, but it is only because I hate to see you suffer.”

Cam stroked his husband's cheek softly, “How I envy you, Rod,” he said, “To be born as yourself. But how I adore you too.” He smiled, a gentle and beautiful thing, “Truly, I love you.”

“And I love you,” Rodrick replied, “And I will stand by you and support you in this endeavour till the very end. But, my love, do not hate the potion you have created today. It will change the world – _you_ have changed the world.”

Cam nodded, and as the two of them embraced once more, they returned to their true physical forms, two human souls entwined in love eternal.

And that is how Cam of Cornwall invented Polyjuice Potion.

Barely five years later and he created the first ever gender potion too, akin to Polyjuice Potion in basic structure, but with a few important changes to the process.

So Cam was eventually able to make his dream of “the outward rendered expressive of the inward” come true; not just for himself but for all those like him too, be they male or female, both or neither, or else somewhere in between.

Many trans magic-users of today still use that exact same formula of potion that Cam himself went on to use. Nowadays, however, potioneers have developed a much wider range of such gender potions to fit the complex and differing needs individuals have.

But the Polyjuice Potion? Well, that was all down to just one exceptional and determined young man called Cam.

**FIN**

**Author's Note:**

> I abhor the words of JK Rowling this past year. Trans men are men and trans women are women. Gender is a social construct and, as a feminist, I vehemently believe in bodily autonomy for all people, regardless of biological sex and regardless of gender identity. 
> 
> Anyway. 
> 
> Anon, I hope this is sort of what you wanted? I found it really challenging to write but in a very very good way, so thank you for a fantastic prompt. 
> 
> I want to introduce trans characters in my Harry Potter wolfstar slow burn “Its Loveliness Increases” and thinking about what being trans in the magical world would be like is very important to that I think, so thank you, thank you. This prompt helped me a huge amount xo


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